The Griggs and Sheckley Oneshot Collection
by cheezburgerlover
Summary: A collection of oneshots concerning everyone's favorite duo. Final chapter: Griggs and Sheckley say good bye to their home and continue on with their lives in the wake of the collapse of the super portal.
1. Settling In

_**Now that I've finally finished one of my chaptered stories, I can begin writing this. I have already pre-written several oneshots that I will try to post once a week. There is no grand plot and the chapters are not in chronological order, which means I can end this collection when I see fit. I'll try to make it last at least two months. Here is the first of the series. Also, this is in third person, which is not usually what I do. Enjoy!**_

_Settling in_

"Sheckley, I think I just crushed another worm." John Grigori, or "Griggs" frowned as bright yellow antlion entrails slid down his jeans.

"For the love of god, Griggs, we're crawling. Can't you see what's in front of you? And second, they're not worms, they're antlion larvae. Now we're gonna have another army of angry acid-spitting bastards on our asses." Robert Sheckley, called only by his last name, rolled his eyes as he crawled through one of the many tunnels in the antlion colony. Scattered throughout the colony were thick, juicy yellow larvae that would later hatch into the monsters the duo had fought endlessly.

"Well, can't you think about it as one less antlion?" Griggs suggested.

"You can certainly think about it that way, but don't whine about the third degree burns you'll get from the antlion workers. They probably heard the noise that grub made when you killed it."

"Geez, sorry. What are we even trying to find? The vort said there was an abandoned mine somewhere, but I think he was an evil Vortigaunt."

Sheckley stopped and decided to humor his friend. He sat down in the tunnel and crossed his legs. "Why was he an evil Vortigaunt, Griggs? Gosh, it seems like he was trying to help us! But I guess I should think twice about any kind vort that tries to lead us _away _from the Combine, huh?"

Griggs, caught off guard by the sudden attention he was getting, started to stutter. Sheckley patiently looked him in the eye.

"Jesus, don't look at me like that. I-I had it!"

"Well, I guess we should press on, then?"

"Fine."

The two crept farther into the mines, careful not to disturb the developing insects. As they turned the corner, a hole in the floor of the tunnel revealed itself. A quick look down the hole showed concrete. Griggs grinned.

"Finally, something built by humans. My knees are killing me." Sheckley grumbled. He wriggled through the hole, followed by Griggs.

--

The hole in the floor of the antlion tunnel was actually a hole in the top of the man made tunnel's ceiling.

"So..." Griggs said, looking around. "We're either at the end of a tunnel or at the beginning of one."

In front of the men was a large atrium of sorts, with three other mining tunnels branching out, a hub of sorts. But most noticeable was the enormous hole in the ceiling of the atrium, high above their heads. The sky was visible. An elevator shaft ran from the hole on the top to the floor. A ramp led down to a lower part of the floor, where the elevator shaft was. In front of the elevator was a stone table.

"So we could've just found that hole, gone down in an elevator, and skipped the last couple of hours with antlions?" Griggs sighed. "I told you that vort was evil."

"If you wanted to risk meeting up with something smarter than your typical antlion, like a Hunter, then sure, we could've stayed above ground. Can't you think ahead, for once?"

"You wait. One day I'm going to think ahead so much I'm going to...going to know what I'm gonna be in the next life!"

"You do that. Now then, whaddya say we get familiar with this place if this is going to be our hiding spot for god knows how long?"

--

"Hey Sheckley, what do these traffic lights do?" Griggs tapped a light fixture next to one of the tunnels. A humming generator sat next to each light. "They're next to all the tunnels."

"They probably direct traffic, Griggs." Sheckley rolled his eyes without looking up from the contents of the dumpster he was shuffling through. So far, he had found a few inactive hopper mines, an empty carton of laundry detergent, some kind of wooden box, a few cardboard boxes, four moldy towels, some spray paint, duct tape, baling twine, and two pillows.

"What about these unlimited ammo crates? What're they doing in an abandoned mine?"

"Just take it for granted, Griggs." Sheckley sighed. "I think someone else lived here." Sheckley stood up.

"Why would anybody else live here besides us?"

"They could've been in the same circumstance as us! Rest of the group killed by the Combine, so they were runaways. They took shelter in the nearest place they could find, it happened to be the opening of the antlion colony. Then they found their way here. And of course..." Sheckley pointed up. "They could have come from there."

"Well, fine. I...I woulda figured that out at some point.

"Of course. What did you find, if you're so smart?"

"Well, I found the traffic lights..."

"I saw them, I just didn't speak up. They're in plain sight. I hardly call that a "discovery". Anything else?"

Griggs walked over to a second dumpster, reached in, and pulled out a disabled Combine turret. He beamed from ear to ear. "'Nuff of a discovery for you?"

Sheckley was speechless. "You...uh...well...yeah, I guess. Just-just don't turn it right side up."

"Don't worry, it's broken." Griggs flipped it right side up, effectively activating the turret. A red light blinked briefly, then it opened fire on Sheckley. Startled, Griggs dropped it and it broke in several pieces.

"You better thank the stars it missed me. What the _hell _made you think it was broken? I'd love to hear it." Sheckley crossed his arms and glared at Griggs expectantly.

"Stop...doing that! I can't...think when I'm under pressure."

"If activating a live turret pointing straight at me is what you call thinking, then I hope you never think."

Griggs smiled. "I can not think at all if you want me to." At that point, he crumpled to the ground.

"Very funny. Let's see if we can get this turret fixed. I know how to reprogram it so it won't attack us."

"Um, we don't have any fancy computers or anything to reprogram it." Griggs stood up and waved his arm around the atrium.

"I don't need any fancy computers. All I need to do is yank a chip off of its board. I guess that's work for tomorrow, though. How do you want to-"

All of a sudden, one of the traffic lights lit up. An alarm began to sound, beeping every other second. "Huh?" Griggs scratched his head.

"I got a baaaad feeling about this." Sheckley pulled out his weapon.

"Why are you always so pessi-"

An antlion emerged out of the ground and began running at the men. Sheckley shot it quickly.

Another antlion dropped from the ceiling of the mine, the hole where Griggs and Sheckley came from. By now, Griggs had come to his senses. He pulled out his gun as well.

After four more antlions had been killed, the light turned off and the alarm stopped.

Griggs exhaled. "Well, that was fun." He leaned against the wall and blew into his gun's barrel.

"That was the most fun I had since you pointed a turret at me." Sheckley crossed his arms.

"Hey, it was a mistake, okay?" Trying to change the subject, Griggs brought up the lights. "So I guess the lights are antlion sensors?"

"It sure looks like it. I'll have to set up that turret sooner than I thought."

"How are we gonna sleep?" Griggs asked.

"Huh?"

"You heard me."

"That was...random. Well... I found towels, those could work like mattresses. And there were two pillows, which can work like pillows. You happy?"

"I guess. Do we have any food?"

"Good god, you little subject jumper. No. We don't."

"Damn it, I'm starving. How do antlions taste?"

Sheckley frowned. "I imagine...bad. But I guess we have no choice but to find out. Drag one over here." He pointed to one of the antlions they had killed a few moments ago.

"I'm not touching one of those things." Griggs shuddered.

"It's dead. The only thing that's gonna happen is you'll get some guts on your hand."

Griggs walked down the tunnel and grabbed an antlion by its front legs. He began to drag it to Sheckley.

"Damn it, these things eat too many donuts."

"Great, more meat for us."

Griggs struggled to move the overgrown bug. Once he finally got it to the center of the atrium, he quickly wiped his hands on his pants.

Sheckley lifted his left pant leg and pulled a knife out of a sheath strapped to the side of his shin.

"I didn't know you had a knife." Griggs said.

"You also didn't know I keep my dad's ashes in a salad spinner."

"You do?"

"No, dummy. I never even had my dad cremated. And what's the point of a salad spinner?"

Griggs said nothing.

Sheckley snickered and began to dissect the antlion.


	2. Reinventing a Classic

_Reinventing a Classic_

"I'm bored." Griggs sat next to Sheckley at the stone table as he tied the Combine turret together with the twine he had found.

"Go search the dumpster." Sheckley barely looked up from his project.

"I've done that three times today."

"Go fight some antlions."

"I did that already."

"Go take a nap."

"I'm not tired."

"Go fly a kite."

"There are no kites."

"Go down the elevator and search for supplies."

"There's lots of antlions down there."

"Go away."

"Fine, I'll go search the dumpster again." Griggs sighed and walked over to one of the dumpsters. He pushed aside the usual clutter, looking for something he hadn't yet found. As he pushed a wooden box aside, he heard a rattling noise.

Upon closer examination, he discovered a small metal latch on the box. He undid the latch. Chess pieces fell out of the box. As he opened it completely, he realized it was a chess board.

"Hey, Sheckley! Look what I found!"

"Your virginity?"

"What? No, a chess board!"

"That would've been my next guess." Sheckley gently laid the turret on the table and stood up. He walked over to Griggs and saw the chess board. "Oh, cool. But I'm not playing with you."

"I actually don't know how to play." Griggs was visibly embarrassed.

"You...you what?"

"I don't know how to play chess."

"My god, Griggs, how did you spend your childhood?"

"Erm..."

"Never mind, don't answer that. I guess I can teach you. Just gather all the pieces."

--

Once Sheckley had arranged the pieces on the fading board, he launched into the instructions. He held up his queen.

"This is the queen. The point of...uh...Griggs? What are you doing?"

Griggs stood up, closed his eyes, and slammed his fist down on one of the pieces. He then opened his eyes, picked it up, examined the piece he had hit, and then laid it on the side of the board.

"That's two points for me."

"Griggs? What the _hell_."

"I think it's much more simple. Your turn."

Sheckley was at a loss for words. "Wha-_huh_?"

"Stand up, close your eyes, and hit a piece. Estimate its height in inches, that's how many points you get."

"That's not chess."

"I don't care." Griggs was being very serious.

"Fine. I'll humor you." Sheckley stood up, closed his eyes, and slammed his fist down on a pawn.

"One point." Griggs said. "After five more turns, we each get a certain number of tries to throw chess pieces at the other person. If I get seven points, I can throw seven chess pieces at you from seven feet away. Whoever gets the most hits wins the game. Ready to keep going?"

Sheckley stood in front of Griggs in stunned silence.

"You're full of crap." With that, he kicked the pieces off the board.

**Oh my god! A note at the _end _of a story/chapter! I haven't much to say, but I will say that I am open to suggestions for oneshots. I have plenty of ideas of my own, but I'd love to hear from you. Want to read about Griggs' hygiene issues? Sheckley's secret hatred of another resistance member? Please indicate your desires in a review. Of course, I will claim your ideas as my own and completely rip you off. :)**

**By the way, the above ideas won't be used for two reasons.**

**A. I don't like them.**

**B. There is no B. I lied.**


	3. Armed To The Teeth

_Armed to the Teeth...Literally_

"It doesn't look fierce enough."

"What do you mean "fierce"?"

Griggs was watching Sheckley put the finishing touches on the broken turret.

"Okay, maybe fierce wasn't the right word. It doesn't look exciting enough."

"Exciting? Who cares if the turret is exciting or not?"

"Me." Griggs crossed his arms.

"Well, I don't. So it looks like it's your word against mine."

"We have spray paint! I can paint teeth or something over it to make it look more menacing. You wouldn't have to do a thing."

"Griggs, by the time a target notices that the turret has teeth spray-painted over it, they'll be dead."

"I don't care. It'd sure make me feel a whole lot better."

"You know what? Fine. Just don't break it again and in case you don't remember when we first moved in, don't put it upright."

"What, you think I'm stupid?"

Sheckley chuckled and said nothing else.

"Shut up. This turret is going to look so fierce when I'm through with it that the targets are gonna run away before they get in range!"

--

"Oh, god. I think I just had an accident in my pants. That's just too scary." Sheckley stood over Griggs as he meticulously painted a set of jaws on the turret. "This is too scary to even exist. Griggs, please spare me from the horror. The horror."

"Aw, shut up. Like you could do better."

"Not saying I can, but I can sure try painting the second one."

"No! _I'm _working on it. You go do boring Sheckley things."

--

"Christ, Griggs! How long does it take to paint a mouth?"

"What productive stuff have _you _done?"

"I've just quartered our next meal." Sheckley turned his hands palm-up, showing the yellow antlion blood that was flowing down his arm. "I left out the guts, the cartilage, the bones, the wings, and the legs from your portion, leaving me with a pile of smelly shit that can only be tasty mashed together in a hot dog."

"Sounds tasty." Griggs showed no sincerity as he carefully ran a black outline along the teeth.

"Whenever you're ready to eat, come on down to the table." Sheckley walked over to the stone table where a gutted antlion lay. Two large heaps of meat sat on either sides of the table, one visibly chunkier than the other.

"Hey, I think I'm done!" Griggs held up the turret. There was a set of sharp teeth and two furious eyes.

"Not bad."

"Really?"

"Figure that out for yourself. Now eat before your pile stinks up the place."

Griggs lay the turret on the ground and walked to the table. The smell of the antlion, while nauseating and sour, was the smell of the only food item they could eat. Griggs picked up a chunk of meat and tossed it into his mouth. He chewed for a second before he bit something solid.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"Ooops. I may have left the bullet in your portion." Sheckley gnawed on a bone and smiled.


	4. Hunting for Something New

**Quick Note:**

**Due to religious reasons, I cannot upload this chapter on Monday. That's why this has been uploaded a day early.**

_Hunting for Something New_

"This doesn't taste good." Griggs frowned as he bit into his thirtieth antlion carcass.

"Did it ever?" Sheckley chewed noisily on a cartilage.

"The fourth one tasted more...peppery."

"Well, what do you suggest?"

"I say we try out a new food."

"How about _you _do the hunting this time?" Sheckley detached a clip of ammo from his belt and slid it to Griggs across the table. "Tunnel's waiting." He pointed to one of the tunnels, one that led to a large cavern with numerous antlion nests.

"You're better at shooting into the parts we don't eat."

"You're better at making up dumb excuses for not hunting. Scram."

Griggs mumbled something to himself. He snatched the magazine off the table and slid it into his gun. Then he proceeded down the tunnel.

"Bring back a juicy one!" Sheckley yelled after him.

--

"Griggs? Care to explain what this is?"

"It's a worker piece."

"And why did you bring back a fragment of a worker?" Sheckley frowned at the smooth, round head of an antlion worker that Griggs had dropped on the table.

"Because I thought they'd taste better! You know they blow up into acid, right? Well, since the piece is covered in acid, it'd have a different taste!"

"Different, yes. Safe, hell no. It's acid. What acid tastes good?"

"Maybe this one! And what's better, you don't have to dissect it! That's one hundred percent meat right there."

"I don't want to get my insides destroyed with acid. Bring back a regular antlion."

"Oh, come on! I had to dodge two acid balls it spat at me!"

"Bring back a regular antlion." Sheckley repeated, his voice getting progressively angrier.

"But-"

"Go!"

"Oh geez. Don't shoot me. I'm going. See?" Indeed, Griggs was edging away from Sheckley. He hurried back down the tunnel.

--

"What do you not understand about "regular antlion"? Griggs dropped two grubs onto the table.

"Can't we have something different, for once?" Griggs tried to reason with Sheckley.

"I don't want to eat a grub."

"Why are you being so picky?"

"Picky? You're the one who wanted a different food in the first place!"

"Well, I guess I could bring back a regular one..."

"Then please do."

Suddenly, Griggs pulled his gun out and shot it into the sky.

"What are you _doing_?"

Before Griggs could answer, a dead crow fell onto the table.

"Fine, I'll go hunt." Sheckley sighed and walked down the tunnel.


	5. The Combine Killing Competition

_The Combine Killing Competition_

**This idea was totally and completely mine. I did not rip off Eternal Density at all.**

**Naw, just kidding. Credit goes to Eternal Density for the idea.**

Griggs lay next to Sheckley on his towel-bed, staring up at the sky. He watched a bird fly over the atrium hole. In these early morning hours, when Sheckley was asleep, he could think without being criticized.

"Griggs. Get your smelly ass foot out of my face." Indeed, Griggs had switched the direction he was lying during his sleep, so that his feet were now at Sheckley's head.

"I thought you were asleep!"

"I thought I was too, until I caught a whiff of that foot of yours."

"Sorry."

Sheckley grumbled to himself. "I was wondering, couldn't the Combine find us down here? There's a big ol' hole in the ceiling."

"If they did find their way down here, I would strangle them through their suit." Griggs boasted.

"Oh, please. Like you _ever _did that."

"I swear on my mother's grave! Once, in the city, I ran out of ammo so I kicked a metrocop in the balls and then strangled him."

"Metrocops don't have balls."

"And how would you know?"

"Because I ripped the clothes off of one."

"Haha, whoa there!"

"Not like _that_." Sheckley rolled his eyes at another lame attempt at humor.

"Well, when the uprising first started, I was being chased by _two _cops and I ran into an alley controlled by a sniper. Just as he shot, I threw a cop in front of me and he took the bullet right in the head. I did it _again _for the second one and then ran into a building."

Unable to resist exaggeration, Sheckley responded. "Well, that's nothing. I was walking down the street, and out of _nowhere _this APC just comes barreling down the street. I start running in the opposite direction and another APC comes from the other side of the street. I know it sounds cliched, but I jumped out of the way and they crashed into each other."

"Ha! I could do that any day."

"Well, have you got something else?"

"I have way more stories than you."

"Then feel free to share."

"It was right before I left the city in the train. There was a Strider in the train station, trying to destroy the rails. I grabbed onto its leg, climbed up above the spikes, and distracted it so it tripped and impaled its head on a pole."

"I never heard any of the other guys talking about it."

"Nah, they were all distracted with the soldiers coming in. I killed the most once I was through with the Strider, though."

Sheckley thought for a moment. He grinned and said, "There was a team of Elites that broke into one of the rebel bases in the city. One shot a plasma bubble at me, but I heard the shot starting up so I picked up a chair and threw it into the bubble. It knocked the bubble off course and bounced all over the room and exploded. Then two shot bubbles at me at the same time. I ducked and the shots hit each other, so they exploded. While the elites were distracted, I killed them all."

"Oh, yeah? Well, I snuck up behind a soldier, killed him, and took the APC he was guarding. I drove the APC through the city and killed about...oh...15 cops and 20 soldiers."

Sheckley shook his head. "Psshht. That's bullshit."


	6. Post Mortem Arrangements

_Post-Mortem Arrangements_

"Sheckley, what would you do if I died?"

"I don't have time for dumb questions right now." Sheckley was tightening a bolt on one of the antlion sensor generators with a wrench he had found a few days ago.

"I think I have a right to know." Griggs was, for once, serious.

Sheckley dropped his wrench and sighed. "What's wrong, Griggs?"

"You don't need to be my shrink, just answer the question."

"I don't know and I don't really want to know." Sheckley picked his wrench back up.

"Then can I suggest something?"

Sheckley thought for a moment. Griggs had an annoying tendency to turn serious subjects into jokes with little effort.

"Go ahead." Sheckley leaned against the generator.

"I want to die by fighting-"

"Whoa there. I don't care about how you want to die. You started a conversation about _after _you die."

"I did?" Griggs thought for a moment. "Ah, so I did."

_Uh oh, _Sheckley thought to himself. The seriousness was quickly declining.

"So, I read that if your body isn't properly disposed of, then your soul doesn't have a clear path to the afterlife."

By now, Sheckley thought it safe to poke fun at Griggs. "Who taught you that, the ancient Egyptians?"

"I'm trying to ask you a serious question and you keep brushing it off."

"Maybe if you asked a more serious question, I would give you a more serious answer."

"What's more serious than death?"

"Fine. You know what? I believe you. You can keep talking."

Griggs muttered and continued. "There are four ways to properly dispose a body so the soul can get into the afterlife. Each way has to do with each of the four elements. You can drop the body into water, bury it, burn it, or blast it into space."

"So?"

"So, I want to be blasted into space once I die."

"Okay, then. I'll just keep working...on this generator." Sheckley tapped the generator with the wrench. It immediately sputtered to life and, after a few seconds, reached the point where it quietly hummed.

"Great, now that that's fixed, we can talk." Griggs crossed his arms and grinned.

_Damn, _Sheckley thought to himself. "So...how will you go about being launched into space?"

"Back in the city, I heard talk of a rocket being launched into that blue cloud above the Citadel. It was supposed to get rid of it."

"So?"

"So, I want to be in that rocket when it's launched."

"So you plan on being dead by the time it's launched."

"I never said that."

"You want to go into the rocket while you're alive?"

"No, dummy. Then I'd be in lots of pain when the thing is launched. I'm not an astronaut, you know. Not to mention I'd die once the rocket hit the blue cloud."

"You don't want to be dead by the time the rocket is launched and you don't want to go in there alive. How do you expect to get into the rocket, in that case?"

"If I die by then."

"And if you don't?"

Griggs thought for a moment. "Fine. If I die after the rocket is launched, then dump me into the ocean."

"I'm pretty sure we're far away from any ocean."

"You can drive."

"In what?"

"In a banana. No, you dummy. In a car."

"Working cars are pretty hard to come by. And that Freeman guy tends to get them."

"You're telling me that you wouldn't bother dumping me into the friggin' ocean?"

"Yeah."

"Gee, thanks. There go the interesting burials."

"Technically, it's not a burial."

"Hypothetically, it is."

"Imagine I din't find a car. What's your next preference?" Sheckley asked.

"I wanna be buried. In dirt."

"So burning is an absolute last resort? Why?"

"'Cause it seems like that's more likely to send me to hell."

_You're going to hell either way, _Sheckley thought to himself.

"I see. Fine, then. I'll bury you." Sheckley tried as hard as he could to keep a straight face.

"Not just any dirt, though." Griggs said. "Sacred dirt."

Sheckley sighed. "What makes it sacred?"

"It needs to have a pH of 0"

"Griggs, if dirt had a pH balance of 0, then it'd eat away at your flesh in a few moments. You know what else has a pH of 0? Battery acid. You wanna be buried in battery acid? Doesn't sound too sacred to me."

"Okay, okay, Mr. Science Nerd. I lied, there is no sacred soil. Just bury me...in plain old dirt."

"Thank you, Griggs, for spending five minutes telling me that you want to be buried like anyone else. Now, if you don't mind, I have other maintenance to do. Those hopper mines are getting a bit rusty."

"You never told me how you want to be buried."

"Huh?"

"You gotta want to be buried _somehow_. How do you want to go about that?" Griggs asked.

"You really want to know?" Sheckley raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

Without missing a beat, Sheckley replied. "I want my guts scooped out and sacrificed to the Egyptian sun god. Then, I need my bones to be picked up by aliens in a UFO and flown back to their planet. Now that my body is hollow, it must be stuffed with live turkeys and then dropped down a 356 foot tall cliff and then be pecked apart by buzzards. Can you do that for me?"

"Uhh...maybe you should go work on that hopper."

**Technically, it's early in the morning on Monday. So why not upload? :)**

**Also, check out the poll on my profile and vote if you haven't already. A new chapter of The Marvelous Misadventures is being worked on right now as well. **


	7. Griggs' New Weapon

_Griggs' New Weapon_

"Griggs, you're not helping." Sheckley groaned. He tenderly rubbed a laceration on his hip.

"When my grandma did it, I felt better instantly."

"You don't quite have a grandmotherly voice."

"I'm sure it'll kick in eventually." Griggs had been reciting nursery rhymes to Sheckley, who had been violently bit by a stray antlion.

"You know what _will _help me? A lot?"

"Fresh cookies?"

"No."

"A medical pack?"

"I'm high off of the morphine in those things. One more and I'll permanently believe you're a hippo."

"Well, what is it?"

"You can try to fix the turrets that went down when Freeman was here."

"They burst into flames."

"Yeah, the frame is ruined. The board inside and the thing that makes the bullets is probably intact. Just open up the frame and switch out the internal parts." Sheckley took a deep breath and winced.

"Um...I can try."

"Thanks." Sheckley closed his eyes and dozed off.

--

"Let's see...open up the frame." Griggs picked up one of the turrets. The frame had been melted over the screws. "How does Sheckley _do _this?"

Just to try, Griggs attempted to pry apart the metal. It wouldn't budge. The only tool the duo had found was a hammer which had broken a week earlier.

Since no ideas immediately occurred to Griggs, he put down the turret and began thinking up other possible weapons to make.

After a few minutes, an idea struck him. He had discovered that antlion muscle, when dry, had rubbery properties. He ran to a dead antlion and slashed the skin open with a knife he had stolen from Sheckley. He pulled out muscle, strand by strand and lay it out flat to dry.

Meanwhile, he took a stick that had fallen from a tree growing over the atrium. Griggs took the knife and cut the stick halfway. He pulled the two halves apart to make a "Y" shape.

By now, the muscle fiber had dried. He took the strands and tied them together. Then, he tied the two ends to the tips of the stick.

"Nice." Griggs had created a slingshot very similar to the ones he made in his youth to shoot at girls.

An hour later, Sheckley rose from his bed. Without missing a beat, Griggs ran to his side and presented him with the slingshot.

Still drowsy, Sheckey asked, "The hell is that?"

"It's our new turret! Watch." Griggs picked up a stone and pulled it back on the muscle string. He released the string. The stone dropped to the floor, not gaining an inch.

Without another word, Sheckley shook his head and snatched the slingshot from Griggs' hands. He tossed it over his shoulder, down the elevator shaft.

"Hey! I spent an hour on that!"

"Go spend an hour drinking poison, you'll be twice as productive." Sheckley flopped back onto his mat and dozed off again.


	8. Ancestry

_Ancestry_

"Hey, Sheck, remember when I first saw you on the train? You were all depressed 'cause you were being transferred." Griggs was casually picking away at a scab on his arm.

"Yeah, yeah, I know perfectly well. Where are you going with this?"

"Nowhere, just asking if you remembered."

"Well, now you got your answer."

A few moments of silence later, Griggs spoke up again. "What were your parents like?"

"My parents? I moved out a few years after I finished college. For all I know, they're still sipping mixed drinks on the island they retired to." Sheckley watched in disgust as the scab started bleeding openly.

"They don't even try to contact you?" Griggs quickly applied pressure to his arm to stop the bleeding.

"We never had a good relationship."

"Where did you go after you moved out?"

"I leased a tiny studio in the city and lived there 'til I got a decent job installing satellite dishes in people's homes. Then I moved into my own apartment, got a girlfriend, got married, bought a house, had kids, fought a guerilla war, then got stuck with Mr. Shit For Brains here."

Griggs chuckled.

"Well, Griggsy, if that's so funny, what's your family history?"

"Do I need to tell you?"

"If you don't, I'll feed you to the antlions."

"Okay. I had a brother, Aaron. He was my parent's favorite, and he stole all their attention from me. One day, my mom fell down the stairs of our apartment complex. Aaron was so sad that he committed his life to God."

"He became a monk?"

"Not quite. After my mom died, my dad just ran away. My brother moved to Russia. When he came back ten years later, he was a Russian Orthodox priest. He insisted I call him "Father" instead of Aaron. Pretty soon, he wasn't Aaron Grigori, but Father Grigori."

"Where were you while he was in Russia?"

"I was homeless for a year, then I went to live with my aunt. I was stuck there until the war started."

"After the war, where'd you go?"

"The Combine captured me and took me to City 6."  
"I see. What about your brother?"

"He was captured by the Combine too, but he ran away to Ravenholm."

"So he's a zombie now."

"Yup."

An awkward silence followed.

--

"Why the hell did you call me Griggsy?"

"Why the hell not?"

"Touche, Sheckley...y."


	9. Not So Angelic After All

_Not So Angelic After All_

"That guy was a jerk." Sheckley craned his head and watched Gordon ascend the elevator shaft with a vortigaunt and Alyx.

"Cut him some slack, Sheck. He had to fight through swarms of aliens just to escape Black Mesa! He personally blew up the Citadel, too!" Griggs tried to reason with the frowning Sheckley.

"That doesn't mean he can ignore me. Would it kill him to say thanks when you throw a medkit to him?

"He knew he could have survived without my help, so a thank-you wasn't necessary."

"I say he's full of himself. And Alyx, she's completely under his spell!" In a high pitched, mocking voice, Sheckley continued. "Oooh, Gordon! I know you're zooming in on my midsection with those built in binoculars of yours, but you're my hero! I love you so, so much! Please, please plunge into antlion-infested mines and fetch me some antlion poo!" At the end of Sheckley's impersonation of Alyx, he stuck out his tongue in disgust.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe he is a bit cocky, but I think he's still a good guy. I heard that he entered Ravenholm through Black Mesa East and came to New Little Odessa."

"I heard that, instead of fighting with his fellow rebels, he was pretend-humping a dead strider so fast it was like he was possessed." Sheckley said.

"Maybe he is possessed." Griggs suggested.

"Yeah, okay. Better call your crazy zombie brother to perform an exorcism."

"No, it would explain a lot of things. Like, why does he never die? The thing controlling him is way too powerful. And how can he make it through Ravenholm? His possessor was controlling the zombies, too. Plus, he can carry a whole bunch of weapons and still sprint like crazy."

"Dummy, he has an HEV suit."

"The HEV suit can't take care of everything. Can he live through the explosion at the top of the Citadel in an HEV suit?"

"Geez, why are you defending him so much? I think he's a jerk. You're in love with him. Case closed."

"Whoa, no. I never said I was in love with him."

"It was implied."

"No it wasn't!"

"Yes it was."

"How?"

"Doesn't matter." Sheckley crossed his arms, delivering the final blow.

Speechless, Griggs stared at Sheckley in stunned silence.

All of a sudden, Sheckley's left arm flew up and slapped Griggs. "Oh! I'm really sorry. That must be my possessor acting up." Sheckley chuckled again.

"Jerk."


	10. Getting Going

_Getting Going_

"I'm really sick of this place. Really sick." Griggs frowned as he picked an unidentifiable insect out of his hair.

"I don't doubt you." Sheckley was lying on the ground, staring up at the sky. A slow-moving cloud mass drifted across the sky. A few hours before, White Forest base had successfully launched their missile into the super portal and had blown it up.

"This one, too, has grown tired of the recreational activities available to him." One Vortigaunt stayed with Griggs and Sheckley. The rest left after Gordon had left the mines with Alyx.

"We're gonna have to go eventually." Griggs said.

"Yeah. Eventually. What's the big rush?"

"I don't wanna stay down here forever! Do you even remember what trees feel like?"

"Sure. Woody."

"Well, my point is, we need to get going. If I eat one more antlion, I'm gonna turn into one. We just need to get a jolt from the vort to get the generator going, and then we can get out of this mine and settle down in that encampment across the gorge."

"Indeed, new rebels have settled the base...once more. You will find adequate refuge and perhaps...a mate."

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Sex!" Griggs excalaimed. "You can't deny the importance of that."

"Indeed, the human race has taken a heavy toll. You will need to...compensate."

Both looked at Sheckley. He sighed.

"Okay, okay, let's go. It's just...I don't know. I'm gonna miss this place."

"Miss it? All that ever happened here was crappy food and Freeman!"

"And extreme chess. And turret decoration. And some really fun moments."

Griggs was dumbfounded. "You're telling me you _liked _all that?"

"I didn't like it. But it'd be a shame to leave it all behind."

"Now _you're _talking crap, Sheck. That's my job."

Sheckley smiled. "Get the generator started, then."

"At last, we can continue this journey of life." The vortigaunt walked up to a generator. A long wire ran to the bottom of the shaft, one that had been installed by the four vortigaunts before they left.

The vortigaunt put both hands on the generator. His hands began to glow green. After a few seconds, he let go of the generator. It slowly began sputtering to life.

"Good riddance!" Griggs yelled over the generator. He peeked down the shaft. A dark figure slowly started to emerge out of the black abyss below.

Griggs squinted hard. He could almost make out a man in the elevator, a man dressed in a suit. He blinked and the figure was gone.

–

The elevator reached the three. The door slid open. Griggs hurriedly ran into the cabin, followed by the vortigaunt. Sheckley glumly looked the place over.

"Get going, Sheck!"

"I'm getting going. There's no rush."

With a final sigh, he stepped into the elevator. The Vort zapped the generator again. The door shut. A few seconds later, the elevator slowly ascended out of the atrium.

Griggs looked up in anticipation. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw the suited man again, standing on the rim of the hole above the atrium. As soon as he focused his vision on the form, it disappeared.

"You alright, Griggsy?"

"Y-yeah. Good."

"Hey, spit into the shaft on three. One, two, three!" Both men pushed their mouths to the rusty bars of the elevator and spit down into the atrium. Sheckley laughed. Maybe the atrium was so bad after all.

**Sorry about the late update. I never had time on Monday to finish the last bit and upload. The reason I'm not continuing is that I didn't have enough ideas to go further, to another nice number like 15. If I do gather up enough ideas later on, maybe I'll make a second series. Maaaaybe. :)**


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